Gleason: It's time for fans to revolt against teams' ticket scams

Wednesday

Aug 27, 2008 at 2:00 AM

The day we start allowing scams is the day we cave to the bully. How much more must we take before we do something other than call talk radio? When do we become respectable sports fans instead of walking around with footprints on our chests?

Kevin Gleason

The day we start allowing scams is the day we cave to the bully. How much more must we take before we do something other than call talk radio? When do we become respectable sports fans instead of walking around with footprints on our chests?

What will it take for us to stop buying Giants and Jets season tickets?

The Jets unveiled their personal seat-license scam on Tuesday. It's your basic scam veiled as a can't-miss opportunity. It's hardly different from those e-mail notices you get saying you've won the lottery.

The Giants announced their scam several weeks ago, and now the Jets share theirs. The Giants gave the Jets an early Christmas present by going first. The only way the Jets could have looked worse than their co-tenant was if they insisted on taking children's college funds as well.

That's another part of the PSL scam that they call a PSL plan. It comes attached to some of the most pathetically humorous quotes you've ever read.

There is no comparing PSLs. They are all a scam. The Giants have charged every season-ticket holder from $1,000-$20,000 to keep their seats for the new stadium opening in 2010. Again, the charge doesn't go toward your tickets. The charge just allows you to keep your seats. Then you pay the exploding ticket price.

If that's not a scam, I'm not sure what constitutes one. How is it different from me demanding customers pay 30 percent or 40 percent of the construction costs to build a new corner store? Or opening the store and charging customers a cover charge to buy milk and bread? You say nightclubs do it all the time? But they don't charge you again for a seat at the bar.

And if they do, you should do what I suggest Jets fans and Giants fans do: Stop patronizing the place.

I'm not suggesting you stop rooting for the team. That would be silly. Just stop going to the games.

I know what you're thinking. Can't deprive myself of doing something our family has done for (fill in the number) generations. Can't deprive my children of seeing games up close.

Yes, you can, and I hereby promise they won't need therapy to combat their stadium jones. You have no other option, people. Public pressure doesn't work. Scores of fans have ripped the Giants for their PSL scam. An occasional journalist has taken a break from his press-box seat to criticize the scam.

And guess what? The Giants are still running the scam. Now the Jets have announced their scam with an unspoken selling point: It's not as big a scam as the Giants'.

Why wouldn't the Giants and Jets make such demands? They know there's a sucker born every minute, and that sports fanatics pop out every few seconds. They know corporations will gobble up seats that aren't filled by folks dipping into savings accounts. They know many fans will do almost anything it takes to see their team from the stands eight times a season.

You have one recourse. Cancel your season tickets. Let somebody else play the sucker.

Of course I doubt a significant number of fans will cancel their tickets. Giants fans rallied at the stadium to protest PSLs before the Jets game on Saturday. About 75 people showed up.

I hear your complaints. They are loud. They are certainly justified. They just aren't working.

Now it's time to start doing something other than shouting into the wind. Time to stand up to the bully.

I'm on your side. But I'm sick and tired of seeing you get punched in the face. It's about time you either stop enabling the scam or shut up.